Cooking in your London apartment? Here's where to shop

Everyone tells you to go to Borough Market, but from Kensington or Chelsea it's a Tube ride east and rammed on a Saturday afternoon. The better Saturday shop for that side of town is the farmers' market on Bute Street in South Kensington, 9am to 2pm, with south-coast fish from Dorset Fish, free-range poultry from Fosse Meadows and bread from Olivier's Bakery.

Two weeks of restaurant dinners wears anyone down, and families feel it first. Plenty of parents feed the children in the apartment at six and go out later, and business travellers use the kitchen on the nights between client dinners, when some good cheese and a salad beats another tasting menu. Check what the residence provides before you shop: only about one in five of the residences we list include a maid service, which is handy for the washing-up after a dinner for friends, and not many more have laundry facilities.

Residential Kensington and Chelsea suit anyone who plans to cook. There are far fewer places to eat out there than in the West End, and a typical South Kensington residence has roughly half as many food businesses nearby as one in Marylebone, which is exactly why a kitchen earns its keep there.

The weekend farmers' markets

South Kensington Farmers' Market is on Bute Street, a pedestrianised street about five minutes from the Tube, every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Buy your fish from Dorset Fish and eat a free-range sausage sandwich from Parsons Ridge while you shop.

Notting Hill Farmers' Market has moved from its old car-park site behind Kensington Church Street and now runs every Saturday from 10am to 2pm at Fox Primary School on Edge Street, W8, rain or shine. It has been going since 1999, with unpasteurised dairy from Hurdlebrook, flowers from Grange Nursery and local honey from Bee Friendly. Over in Belgravia and Pimlico, Pimlico Road Farmers' Market fills Orange Square, where Pimlico Road meets Ebury Street, every Saturday from 9am to 2pm, selling day-boat fish and free-range eggs and poultry around a statue of the young Mozart. Many stalls take cards, though it's worth carrying some cash.

Marylebone Farmers' Market is one of the biggest in the London network, with over 100 producers on the roster, though they don't all turn up every week. It runs every Sunday from 10am to 2pm on St Vincent Street and Aybrook Street, spilling up onto Moxon Street. Finish at La Fromagerie on Moxon Street, open until 5.30pm on Sundays, for something from the cheese room and a coffee in the café.

The London Farmers' Markets calendar for Notting Hill is a decent guide to what the stalls will have through the year:

• Winter: root vegetables
• Spring: wild garlic
• May: asparagus and strawberries
• July: cherries
• From August: apples and plums
• October: game
• December: turkeys

Borough Market on a weekday, and a grocer that delivers

Borough Market, at 8 Southwark Street next to London Bridge station, has traded on this site since 1756 and is run by a charitable trust. It's shut on Mondays, and otherwise open 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday. Saturday afternoon is the worst of it, while a Tuesday or Wednesday morning is when you can talk to the traders. There are three parts: Three Crown Square for the larger producers, the Green Market for specialist traders, and Borough Market Kitchen for street food, which is where you want to be at lunchtime. From South Kensington, take the District or Circle line to Westminster and change to the Jubilee for London Bridge.

Partridges, the family-run grocer that spent over half a century in Chelsea, has moved its business to its shop at 17-19 Gloucester Road. It was awarded a Royal Warrant as grocers to the King in 2024 and delivers free on orders over £50, which is useful for the tins, wine and breakfast things you don't fancy carrying home.

Food hygiene ratings for the places in this guide

Official fact Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, checked 23 September 2026. 5 is the top rating.

Name	Registered address	Rating	Inspected
La Fromagerie	4 Moxon Street, W1U 4EW	5	Jul 2025
Partridges	17-19 Gloucester Road, SW7 4PL	5	Jan 2026

Ratings cover hygiene only, not food quality. Matched by name and address; a venue not shown was not found or could not be matched with confidence.